Review: Talon by Julie Kagawa

Book: Talon, Julie Kagawa

Series: Talon series #1

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Release Date: October 28^th, 2014

Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they're positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.

Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George.

Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon's newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey: and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember's bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him: and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.

Julie Kagawa knows how to write fantasy books. She’s written about vampires, faeries, and now with Talon, dragons. She continues to excel in this genre by writing a great first book in this series about dragon shifters, in the form of Ember Hill.

She’s a dragon that can shift into a human. She’s part of an organisation called Talon, that hate all humans and have her entire life all planned out, without her having any say in it. She followed the stereotype all female protagonists get in YA books: she was feisty, stubborn, independent, and did what she wanted whenever she wanted. I still really liked her character though. Talon kept trying to make her behave a certain way and think what they wanted, but she kept her own mind and stuck with it. I loved that about her.

She and her twin brother, Dante, were sent to a beach town in California for the summer to be accepted into human society, as well as to give them one last summer of freedom before they return to Talon to work there for the remainder of their lives. I love sibling relationships and I loved how close Ember and Dante were, but I also hated how Ember’s free spirit was slowly pushing her away from her brother throughout the book. Dante wanted to believe Talon and what they stood for and keep out of trouble. He wanted Ember to do the same, and I could tell it really hurt him that she refused to accept what they were telling her.

At the opposite side of the dragons, you have the humans that hunt them, aka The Order of St George. This order is dedicated to ridding the world of dragons, as they believe them to be selfish, evil, and incapable of feeling human emotions. We focus on Garret, who was sent to California to find the dragons that were there and kill them. Because of this, he meets Ember, and they immediately have a connection together. Neither knows what the other is, and it was actually really funny to see them get paranoid and suspicious about the other, but also think that their paranoia was just that: paranoia. Because what are the chances that the one person you start to fall for happens to be your ultimate enemy?

The end of the book really made me love Garret’s character, and I can’t wait to see more of him in the second book.

And finally, there are the rogue dragons. The dragons who were sick of the tough regime that Talon enforced on them and decided to leave. Riley is the charismatic bad boy to Garret’s good guy. I’m quite positive that this will turn into a love triangle by the second book, and all I'm hoping is that Kagawa’s writing will make it a good and entertaining one, not something predictable.

If you’re looking for an epic, dragon fighting book, this is not the book. Hopefully we’ll get to meet more dragons in the second book, but for Talon, they really only focus on a few dragons.

All in all, I really liked this book and am looking forward to the sequel. It wasn’t un-put-down-able like her Blood of Eden books were, but still enjoyable. 

**Also, remember that last post I did about YA stereotypes? This book has 6 out of those 10 stereotypes.**